Sunday, April 16, 2017

"Silence in Paris"

As every married person knows, silences can be pregnant with meaning, even if the meaning is not immediately clear. The silence in the French press about a recent startling event in Paris is surely pregnant with meaning. On Monday, April 3, an Orthodox Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, a doctor aged 66, was thrown out of a window to her death by an African man aged 27. He was her neighbor in the flats where she lived. According to witnesses, whose testimony has yet to be confirmed, the man, who had been harassing her with insults for several days, shouted “Allahu akbar!” as he threw her.

Also, according to unconfirmed reports, neighbors had called the police because of the young man’s behavior. Three policemen came but did nothing, deciding that it was up to other authorities, presumably psychiatric, to act. At any rate, the young man was transferred to a psychiatric clinic almost immediately after his arrest....

But why the silence in the press? The case was certainly dramatic enough to be worthy of a mention under the rubric of faits divers. I happened to learn of it only through a Parisian neighbor, a Jewish shop owner. The story had appeared in La Tribune juive, and probably caused a shudder among French Jews, all the greater because of the silence of the press about it.

Was this silence commanded or coordinated from above? Perhaps no one wanted to raise the temperature in the run up to one of the most contested elections in recent French history, in which there is the possibility—an outside possibility, but still greater than ever before—of a victory for the far Right.

Factoid: The first round of the 2017 French presidential election is set to be held on 23 April 2017. Should no candidate win a majority, a run-off election between the top two candidates will be held on 7 May 2017.

I was in Vegas this week and playing blackjack w/ a Serbian limey @ the table. He had been up all night[it was 8a] and hammered. He started asking people who they voted for and the dealer suggested politics was a discouraged subject. But, the asshole persisted. He started spouting about Brexit and how all the stupid people voted for it. Now, prior to his political rant I had a nice conversation w/ him about Montenegro and his family still there. So, I say to him, "I voted for Trump" and a Chinese woman quickly said, "So did I." The Serbian Brit left shortly afterwards.

On Bags review we went to the Stratosphere Top o' the World steakhouse. It was a clear night and the view was spectacular, although the motor on the revolving platform was broken. Had a very good, somewhat overpriced, meal. It's something I never would have done unless someone I trust recommended it.

My understanding is LePen often gets the most votes in the first round, and then all the losers support the next highest just to keep LePen from winning. Dumb, but we are talking our elite betters and their higher level 3D chess way of thinking.